BETTE OF ROSES

Sorry Bette. This album, produced by Arif Mardin, is not the best album she's ever recorded. Harsh? Yes. But I had such expectations after GYPSY. Not one song written before 1980. The selection seems like a blatant attempt to duplicate the success of her middle-of-the-road ballads. There is no passion in her voice and no life in the songs. Come back to the five and dime, Bette Midler, Bette Midler.

Standout tracks - I Know This Town, I Believe In You, To Deserve You (whose radio-friendly remix had middling -no pun intended- success in dance clubs)